The cuts across the NHS will wreck the lives of workers and patients alike if they go ahead. In Yorkshire, 500 low paid women workers are standing up to the Tory assault. And local people and other hospital staff are right behind them.

Last week they walked out for five days. This was just the latest show of strength by the medical secretaries, ward clerks and admin staff at Dewsbury, Pontefract, and Wakefield hospitals.

Their determination to fight job losses and pay cuts is an inspiration, and their confidence is growing. So says Karen Grimaldi, a medical secretary and Unison union steward.

“We feel more confident than when we started last year,” she said.

“We had a strike meeting before our latest strike started that was overflowing. Management were sat outside trying to find out what was happening.

“We ended the meeting with thunderous applause so they could hear what was going on!”

Last September the Mid Yorkshire NHS trust announced that it was going to save £500,000 by targeting nearly 200 low-paid women workers with wage cuts of nearly £3,000.

This is called “downbanding”.

Others were threatened with redundancy despite their extensive training and experience.

Workers in the Unison union struck for one day in early November last year. At the end of November, Unite members joined them, bringing the number of strikers to 500.

Victimise

That time they walked out for three days. Management tried and failed to victimise strikers before Christmas.

They gave individuals letters saying they were to be investigated for incidents on a picket line.

But they were forced to back down after bosses got a deluge of emails supporting the strikes.